Tsumura Establishes Production, Processing and Storage Facility for Raw Medicinal Herbs in Yubari City, Hokkaido
2009.04.16

News Release

Tsumura & Co. (Headquarters: Tokyo, President: Junichi Yoshii) announces that it has decided to establish a production, processing and storage facility for medicinal herbs that are used as raw materials for Kampo preparations. The new facility will expand the cultivation of raw medicinal herbs in Hokkaido.

1. Reason for establishing a production, processing and storage facility in Yubari City, Hokkaido

(i) Tsumura has concentrated on Kampo and medicinal herbs in an effort to establish Kampo medicine and to promote drug fostering and evolution of Kampo*. As a result, sales of Kampo preparations have been growing approximately 10% each year in volume terms.
In this environment, Tsumura has been examining the possibility of expanding the cultivation of medicinal herbs in Japan.
At present, Tsumura has five cultivation facilities in Japan, including the one in Hokkaido. Because large-scale, mechanized cultivation in Hokkaido is likely to help reduce the cost of medicinal herbs, Tsumura has decided to establish a production, processing and storage facility for medicinal herbs in Yubari City, and to expand the cultivation of raw medicinal herbs in Hokkaido. It will also strive to bolster productivity by integrating the operations of its existing drying facility in Chitose and the base in Yubari. Tsumura expects to develop its own farm in Yubari City in the future.

(ii) With an expressway nearby, and the Sapporo Airport, New Chitose Airport and Tomakomai port also within close proximity, Yubari City offers considerable geographical advantages in collecting, processing and storing raw medicinal herbs that are cultivated at sites around Hokkaido, and shipping them to Company plants. Tsumura also hopes that setting up an operational facility in Yubari City will contribute, even if modestly, to the regional economy.

2. Cultivation area, production volume and storage of raw medicinal herbs

Tsumura plans to develop an overall cultivation area of approximately 1,000 hectares and total production of 2,000 tons in Hokkaido within the next ten years. It also plans to gather, process and store all of its medicinal herbs cultivated in Hokkaido.

*Drug fostering and evolution of Kampo: Drug fostering and evolution of Kampo means accumulating fundamental and clinical scientific data on Kampo preparations in areas where medical needs are high, associated with conditions that Western medicine cannot cure but on which Kampo preparations have demonstrated specific effects.